"I think slut-shaming is wrong. I don’t believe in it."

Kerry Washingtonwas giddy and comfortable with her co-stars on stage at the Dolby Theatre during the 33rd annual Paleyfest. And, when the topic of on-screen sexual partners came up, the Scandal star brought the discussion some humor.

“There was one day recently on set where we actually tallied through how many sexual partners each character has had…” she remarked. “And, listen, I don’t have a judgment about that. I said this on Twitter, I think slut-shaming is wrong. I don’t believe in it. You can sleep with as many people as you want to sleep with, but I will do just about anything to make fun of Tony Goldwyn, so…”

The star of the hit television series went back and forth with Goldwyn, giving the actor the brunt of a gentle ribbing sent his way. The two have been locked in a romance for the ages on network television for the last five years, but it looks like they both still have their funny bones intact.

After everything Washington’s character, Olivia Pope, has been through, it looks like they’ll need that sense of humor.

Scandal is also known to tackle real world politics every season. The immediacy ofDonald Trump’s ascent to the helm of the leaky Republican starship is feverishly covered daily by press all around the world. His rise is looked at as a lot of things, the main one being that he’s running on a platform of good ol’ fashioned bigotry and class partisanship. Well, Scandal has joined in, and it looks like the character will be competing with Mr. Trump as far as outrageous dialogue goes.

Showrunner Shonda Rhimes shared a few nuggets on the character’s introduction: “We did have some moments where I’d run back to the writer’s room the next day and say, ‘There’s some dialogue we have to cross out because it’s already happened,” which seemed to surprise even Rhimes. “This election is its own thing, you can’t make this stuff up.”

There’s no doubt that you’d have a tough time coming up with a storyline like this one if it wasn’t unfolding right before our eyes, but here we are. Washington hinted at some upcoming TV-debate wackiness, “If you think the debates in the real world are fun…”

With Trump’s trouncing of Rubio in his home state of Florida, it looks like a Democrat and Trump showdown is coming as we race toward November. In the meantime, we can test which character is more believable – the one invented by Shonda Rhimes and crew, or the one leading the Republican charge.